“If you are insinuating that something untoward has happened between the princess and me, you’re wrong. She was wounded. That is the reason she didn’t return. Did her lady-in-waiting not tell you that?”
Tierney was calm and poised. But he was lying; Maxim was certain of it.
“I’ll ask you the same question I asked her,” he continued, undeterred. “Do you think me stupid?”
Tierney gave him an insolent shrug. “I’m sure I couldn’t say.”
The man needed to be reminded of his place.
“I wasn’t in favor of having you killed as Felix wanted,” he said slowly, “but I may change my mind yet.”
“I invite him to try.”
“Felix is my most highly trained assassin,” Maxim warned. “No one can slit a man’s throat as quickly and quietly.”
“If your intention is to kill me, then have done with it,” Tierney said with a fool’s defiance. “As we speak, the princess’s uncle is conspiring to have her murdered. He tried once, but fortunately I was there to shoot the bastard dead before he could do more than wound her arm. If you want alivingwife, you may wish to consider that.”
Maxim’s blood went cold. It was as he had feared, then. But it was impossible to know if the assassin who had tried to harmPrincess Anastasia had been hired by her uncle or one of his own enemies.
“How do you know Gustavson was behind the attack?” he asked.
“I can’t be certain,” Tierney admitted. “But when my men gathered the body, they found Boritanian coins on him. He wasn’t known to me or my men. Nor was he a common footpad. He didn’t attempt to steal anything. His intent was to wound the princess, and his blade was mere inches from her heart. There is only one Boritanian with the motive and the means to assassinate the princess in London, and it’s her uncle.”
Boritanian coins were not necessarily the best indicator. The men who had come for him had worn Boritanian colors. Still, he didn’t wish to entrust more information than was necessary to Tierney.
He balled his gloved hands into fists. “I don’t disagree.”
“The princess was escaping from her uncle’s town house using her bedchamber window,” Tierney added, “by climbing a tree. A physician tended to her wound, but I feared she would cause further harm if she tried to exert herself too soon after the injury occurred. I sent word to her lady-in-waiting that the princess would remain with me in the hopes that her wound would heal well enough that she could safely return. However, given the fact that her uncle wishes her dead, there is ample reason for her to remain where she is, beyond her uncle’s reach.”
“If all this is true, then what were you doing this evening?” he asked sharply.
“You had me followed,” Tierney said baldly.
“Naturally,” Maxim admitted with ease. “Princess Anastasia’s lady-in-waiting is loyal to a fault, and I wasn’t certain I could trust her. I had to see for myself what you were about. Why were you going to the town house tonight, armed as you were?”
“The princess was deeply concerned for her lady-in-waiting’s welfare. My intent was to liberate Lady Tansy and bring her to my home, where she would be far more protected than in her current location.”
Ye gods, the man was bold. And stupid.
“You intended to kidnap a princess and her lady-in-waiting.”
“Not the princess,” Tierney denied. “But her lady-in-waiting, perhaps. Only if she resisted.”
The mere notion of Tansy falling into the Englishman’s clutches made him long to roar with rage. Tansy was his, damn it. He alone would protect her.
“You’re an idiot, Mr. Tierney,” he said, feeling vicious.
“So it would seem, considering I’ve been captured by you.”
“I don’t like you, Tierney,” Maxim growled. “You’re an insolent Englishman, and I ought to have Felix slit you from gut to gullet.”
“Felix isn’t in this carriage. I could kill you with my bare hands before he even knew anything was amiss.”
A muscle in Maxim’s jaw began ticking, so tightly was he grinding his molars. “I fear you underestimate me, English puppy. I’d snap you like a twig and use your bones to pick my teeth.”
Tierney had the effrontery to laugh. “If it pleases you to imagine you could best me, then by all means, do so.”
More silence descended, their glares clashing as the carriage swayed on, bouncing over a rut in the road.
